Systems and methods for antenna placement for wireless communications

ABSTRACT

A first antenna array includes antenna panels including: first antenna panels arranged on a first circle having a first radius, each of the first antenna panels including antenna elements; and second antenna panels arranged on a second circle having a second radius, each of the second antenna panels including antenna elements, the second circle being concentric with the first circle at a center point, the second antenna panels being arranged at a first angle around the center point with respect to the first antenna panels, the first radius, the second radius, and the first angle being computed in accordance with wireless transmission conditions including: a line-of-sight distance to a second antenna array including third antenna panels arranged on two or more circles; and a carrier frequency of a line-of-sight wireless transmission between the first antenna array and the second antenna array.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

The present application is a continuation of and claims priority to andthe benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/929,035 filed Jul.14, 2020, issued as U.S. Pat. No. 11,296,428, which claims priority toand the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/984,201, filedMar. 2, 2020, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANTENNA LOCATION DESIGNFOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS,” the entire content of which isincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

One or more aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate tosystems and methods for antenna placement for wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

In the field of wireless communications, line-of-sight (LOS)communication refers to direct paths between transmitting or sourceantennas and receiving antennas, without obstructions such as walls orthe Earth. Line-of-sight communication is particularly important whenoperating at high frequencies, such as in the Frequency Range 2 (FR2)frequency band of 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz of the 5G New Radio (NR)standard and at higher frequencies, such as in the terahertz (THz)frequency band that may be used in upcoming 6G wireless communications.

In the area of line-of-sight communications, one major performancebottleneck is correlations between antennas, due to the lack ofmulti-paths (e.g., multiple paths between the transmitting antennas andthe receiving antennas due to interactions such as reflection,refraction, and diffraction with the environment). Without carefuldesign of antenna panels, the channel conditions can become unfavorable,thereby causing overall performance degradation.

SUMMARY

Aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems andmethods for antenna placement to increase or maximize communicationthroughput between antenna panels by reducing or minimizinginter-antenna correlations.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a first antennaarray includes antenna panels, the antenna panels including: one or morefirst antenna panels arranged on a first circle having a first radius,each of the first antenna panels including one or more antenna elements;and one or more second antenna panels arranged on a second circle havinga second radius, each of the second antenna panels including one or moreantenna elements, the second circle being concentric with the firstcircle at a center point, the one or more second antenna panels beingarranged at a first angle around the center point with respect to theone or more first antenna panels, the first radius, the second radius,and the first angle being computed in accordance with wirelesstransmission conditions including: a line-of-sight distance to a secondantenna array including one or more third antenna panels arranged on twoor more circles; and a carrier frequency of a line-of-sight wirelesstransmission between the first antenna array and the second antennaarray.

The wireless transmission conditions may further include: a number ofthe antenna panels in the first antenna array; a number of circles onwhich the antenna panels of the first antenna array are arranged; and anumber of antenna elements in each of the antenna panels.

The wireless transmission conditions may further include: a number ofthe third antenna panels in the second antenna array; and a number ofcircles on which the third antenna panels of the second antenna arrayare arranged.

The first antenna array may further include an antenna array controllerconfigured to: compute a second angle between the first antenna arrayand the second antenna array, the first radius, the second radius, andthe first angle in accordance with changes in the wireless transmissionconditions: and reconfigure the first antenna array based on the firstradius, the second radius, the first angle, and the second angle.

The antenna array controller may be configured to activate the firstantenna panels and the second antenna panels selected from a grid ofantenna panels in accordance with the first radius, the second radius,the first angle, and the second angle.

The antenna array controller may be configured to control one or moreactuators to position the first antenna panels and the second antennapanels in accordance with the first radius, the second radius, the firstangle, and the second angle.

The first antenna panels and the second antenna panels may be spacednon-uniformly around the first circle and the second circle.

The first radius may be the same as the second radius.

The first radius may be different from the second radius.

The first radius, the second radius, and the first angle may be computedin accordance with optimizing a performance metric.

The performance metric may be computed based on one or more of:minimizing a decoding error probability; maximizing a channel capacity;and minimizing channel correlations.

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method forconfiguring a first antenna array and a second antenna array includes:receiving wireless transmission conditions including: a line-of-sightdistance D between: a first antenna array including first antenna panelsarranged on two or more first circles; and a second antenna arrayincluding second antenna panels arranged on two or more second circles;and a carrier frequency λ of a line-of-sight wireless transmissionbetween the first antenna array and the second antenna array; computingantenna array parameters for the first antenna array and the secondantenna array based on the wireless transmission conditions, the antennaarray parameters including: one or more first radii r of the firstcircles of the first antenna array; one or more first rotational offsetsβ_(i) between the first circles of the first antenna array; one or moresecond radii ρ of the second circles of the second antenna array; one ormore second rotational offsets β_(i) between the second circles of thesecond antenna array; and a rotational offset α between the firstantenna array and the second antenna array.

The wireless transmission conditions may further include: a number offirst antenna panels M in the first antenna array; a number of circlesCr in the first antenna array; a number of second antenna panels N inthe second antenna array; a number of circles Ct in the second antennaarray; and a number of antenna elements Q in each of the first antennapanels and each of the second antenna panels.

The computing the antenna array parameters may include determining that:the number of first antenna panels M in the first antenna array and thenumber of second antenna panels N in the second antenna array are bothequal to four; and the first antenna panels are arranged in two firstcircles in the first antenna array and the second antenna panels arearranged in two second circles in the second antenna array.

The computing the antenna array parameters may include: determining thatthe wireless transmission conditions indicate that the first radii r ofthe first circles of the first antenna array are different from thesecond radii ρ of the second circles of the second antenna array; andcomputing the antenna array parameters in accordance with constraints:

${{r_{0}\rho_{0}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{4}},{k = 1},3,5,{{{{.\;.\;.r_{0}}\rho_{0}} + {r_{1}\rho_{1}}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{m = 1},3,5,{{{.\;.\;.r_{1}}\rho_{1}} = \frac{l\lambda D}{4}},{l = 1},3,5,{.\;.\;.}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array and ρ₀ and ρ₁ are the radii of the two second circles ofthe second antenna array.

The computing the antenna array parameters may include: determining thatthe wireless transmission conditions indicate that: the first radii r ofthe first circles of the first antenna array are the same as the secondradii ρ of the second circles of the second antenna array; and that therotational offsets β_(i) between the two first circles of the firstantenna array and between the two second circles of the second antennaarray are both 90°; and computing the antenna array parameters inaccordance with constraints:

${{2c{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \cos}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {a\mspace{14mu}\sin\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} a} = {\pm 1}},{k = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{{.\;.\;.( {r_{0}^{2} + r_{1}^{2}} )}\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} l} = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{{.\;.\;.2}{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \sin}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {b\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} b} = {\pm 1}},{m = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array and c is a ratio between the radii r₀ and r₁ of the twofirst circles of the first antenna array.

The computing the antenna array parameters may include: determining thatthe wireless transmission conditions indicate that: the first radii r ofthe first circles of the first antenna array are the same as the secondradii ρ of the second circles of the second antenna array; therotational offsets β_(i) between the two first circles of the firstantenna array and between the two second circles of the second antennaarray are not both 90°; and the rotational offset α between the firstantenna array and the second antenna array is 0°; and computing theantenna array parameters in accordance with constraints:

${r_{1}^{2} = \frac{k\lambda D}{4{c( {c + {a\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\beta}} )}}},{a = {\pm 1}},{k = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{.\;.\;.r_{1}^{2}} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2( {c^{2} - 1} )}},{l = {\pm 1}},\ {\pm 3},\ {\pm 5},{{.\;.\;.\ r_{1}^{2}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{4( {{c\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\beta} + b} )}},{b = {\pm 1}},{m = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{{.\;.\;.\cos}\mspace{14mu}\beta} = \frac{{( {k - {2l}} )c^{2}} - k}{2lca}}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array and c is a ratio between the radii r₀ and r₁ of the twofirst circles of the first antenna array.

The computing the antenna array parameters may include determining that:the number of first antenna panels M in the first antenna array and thenumber of second antenna panels N in the second antenna array are notboth equal to four; or the first antenna panels are not arranged in twofirst circles in the first antenna array or the second antenna panelsare not arranged in two second circles in the second antenna array; andcomputing the antenna array parameters in accordance with constraint:

$r_{i}^{2} = {{\frac{\lambda D}{k_{i}c_{i}^{2}}\mspace{14mu}{and}\mspace{14mu}\rho_{j}^{2}} = \frac{\lambda D}{l_{j}\sigma_{j}^{2}}}$where r_(i) is the radius of the ith circle of the first antenna array,c_(i) is a ratio between the radius r_(i) of the ith circle of the firstantenna array and the radius r_(C) _(r) ⁻¹ of the outermost circleC_(r)−1 of the first antenna array, where c_(C) _(r) ⁻¹=1, and k_(i) isa positive scaling parameter, and where ρ_(j) is the radius of the jthcircle of the second antenna array, j=0, . . . , C_(t)−1, σ_(j) is theratio of the diameter of the jth circle to the outermost outer circleC_(t)−1, where σ_(C) _(t) ⁻¹=1, and l_(j) is a positive scalingparameter.

The method may further include: computing the antenna array parametersin accordance with changes in the wireless transmission conditions; andreconfiguring the first antenna array and the second antenna array inaccordance with the antenna array parameters.

The reconfiguring the first antenna array and the second antenna arraymay include: activating the first antenna panels from a first grid ofantenna panels of the first antenna array and the second antenna panelsfrom a second grid of antenna panels of the second antenna array inaccordance with the antenna array parameters.

The first grid of antenna panels may be arranged on: a flat plane; aportion of a cylinder; or a portion of a sphere.

The reconfiguring the first antenna array and the second antenna arraymay include: moving the first antenna panels and the second antennapanels using one or more actuators to arrange the first antenna panelsand the second antenna panels in accordance with the antenna arrayparameters.

These and other features, aspects and advantages of the embodiments ofthe present disclosure will be more fully understood when consideredwith respect to the following detailed description, appended claims, andaccompanying drawings. The actual scope of the invention is defined bythe appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the present embodimentsare described with reference to the following figures, wherein likereference numerals refer to like parts throughout the various viewsunless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of a model for antenna locations inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, and 2G schematically depict examplearrangements of antenna arrays configured with parameters calculated inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a plot depicting some possible solutions that minimizecorrelation terms for the Ct=Cr=2 case for a variety of values of r₁ ²(in units of λD) versus angle between circles β, where the parametersare calculated in accordance with a model in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic depiction of a dynamically reconfigurable antennaarray according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for dynamically configuring an antennaarray according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for computing antenna array parametersaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Hereinafter, example embodiments will be described in more detail withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numbersrefer to like elements throughout. The present disclosure, however, maybe embodied in various different forms, and should not be construed asbeing limited to only the illustrated embodiments herein. Rather, theseembodiments are provided as examples so that this disclosure will bethorough and complete, and will fully convey the aspects and features ofthe present disclosure to those skilled in the art. Accordingly,processes, elements, and techniques that are not necessary to thosehaving ordinary skill in the art for a complete understanding of theaspects and features of the present disclosure may not be described.Unless otherwise noted, like reference numerals denote like elementsthroughout the attached drawings and the written description, and thus,descriptions thereof may not be repeated. Further, in the drawings, therelative sizes of elements, and regions may be exaggerated and/orsimplified for clarity.

In line-of-sight (LOS) wireless communications, undesired correlationsbetween wireless channels can cause degradation in communicationperformance (e.g., as measured by signal-to-noise ratios and/or errorrates). In comparative systems, the antenna configuration is fixed forall communication scenarios, and the antennas are typically spaced athalf of the operating wavelength. However, this configuration may besub-optimal for LOS communications.

One way to implement wireless communication devices (e.g., cellularradios) that can avoid channel correlations and successfully operate inthose scenarios is to configure or arrange the active antenna elements(or antenna panels) of the antenna arrays to provide favorable channelconditions for particular communications scenarios. However, comparativeapproaches for generating antenna panel arrangements are generallyconstrained to producing very regular (uniform) antenna locations andfail to identify solutions that involve the irregular arrangement ofantenna elements or antenna panels in the antenna array. Therefore,there are circumstances in which comparative approaches may fail togenerate workable solutions, such as in circumstances where there areparticular physical space or shape constraints on the arrangement ofantenna panels or antenna elements, where a regular (or uniform) antennaarrangement would not meet the physical constraints, but an irregular(or non-uniform) antenna arrangement may meet the physical constraints.

Accordingly, aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate tomethods for placing antenna elements or antenna panels to avoid orreduce channel correlations and thereby improve the performance of LOSchannels. Aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure also relateto antenna systems having antenna elements or antenna panels placedaccordingly. Aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure may beapplied to a variety of LOS wireless communication environments,including fixed transmit and receive locations such as indoor datacenters and wireless backhaul connections for outdoor cellular basestations. Some aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relateto determining locations of the antennas elements or antenna panels inaccordance with a variety of parameters including the distance betweenthe transmitter and receiver (Tx-Rx distance).

Some aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate tocomputing an arrangement of antennas by improving or optimizing aperformance metric such as minimizing a decoding error probability,maximizing a channel capacity or throughput, and/or minimizing theantenna correlations. Some aspects of embodiments of the presentdisclosure relate to the antenna panels in which the antenna elements(e.g., antenna panels) are arranged on concentric circles. Embodimentsof the present disclosure are also capable of computing arrangements ofvery large numbers of antennas on an antenna panel. Some aspects ofembodiments of the present disclosure also relate to automaticallycomputing an antenna arrangement based on current environmentalconditions and communications scenarios, and automatically selecting asubset of antenna panels from a group of antenna panels in accordancewith the computed antenna arrangement.

FIG. 1 is a schematic depiction of a model for antenna locations inaccordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1 , a receiving antenna array 100 includes aplurality of receiving antenna panels 110 (N antenna panels) where theembodiment of FIG. 1 shows four (N=4) receiving antenna panels 111, 112,113, and 114. Each of the receive antenna panels 110 may include one ormore antenna elements (where the number of antenna elements in a panel110 is denoted by Q), such as where each receive antenna panel includesa single antenna element (Q=1) or an array of antenna elements (Q>1).The antenna elements are arranged on a plurality of receive circles 120(individually identified as receive circles 121 and 122). The receivingantenna array 100 includes Cr circles (Cr is the number of receivecircles), and each of the receive circles 120 has a corresponding radiusidentified as r₀, r₁, . . . , r_(Cr-1). In some embodiments, eachreceive circle has a different radius. In some embodiments, some of thereceive circles may have the same radius as one another.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , the receive circles 120 are depictedas being coplanar in an xy-plane and concentric around a receive centerpoint 130. Each receive circle 120 may have a corresponding rotationaloffset β as measured from the outermost receive circle (e.g., having thelargest radius). For example, the first receive circle 121 isrotationally offset from the outermost receive circle 122 by angle β₁.(According to this notation, there may be Cr rotational offsets: β₀, β₁,. . . , β_(Cr-1). Assuming that the (Cr−1)-th receive circle has thelargest radius, then β_(Cr-1)=0°.) The rotational offset may be measuredbetween the line segments (or rays) between the receive center point 130and one of the receiving antenna panels 110 of each receive circle(e.g., a lowest numbered antenna element of its circle). In theembodiment shown in FIG. 1 , first receiving antenna panel 111 andsecond receiving antenna panel 112 are on the first receive circle 121(having radius r₀), and third receiving antenna panel 113 and fourthreceiving antenna panel 114 are on second receive circle 122 (havingradius r₁). Accordingly, the angle β₀ is defined as the angle between afirst ray 141 between the receive center point 130 and the firstreceiving antenna panel 111 on the first receive circle 121 and a secondray 142 between the receive center point 130 and the third receivingantenna panel 113 on the second (outermost) receive circle 122 (havingradius r_(Cr-1)).

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 also includes a transmitting antennaarray 200 spaced apart from the receiving antenna array 100 by adistance D along the z-axis (e.g., perpendicular to the xy-plane). Thereceiving antenna array 100 and the transmitting antenna array 200 maybe referred to as a first antenna array and a second antenna array. Inaddition, the terms “transmitting” and “receiving” are used herein toidentify the different antenna arrays out of convenience. Embodiments ofthe present disclosure include embodiments where an arrangement ofantenna panels of a “receiving” antenna array and a “transmitting”antenna array be used for LOS wireless transmissions from the“receiving” antenna array to the “transmitting” antenna array and viceversa.

The transmitting antenna array 200 includes a plurality of transmittingantenna panels 210 (M transmitting antenna elements) where theembodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes six (M=6) transmitting antennapanels 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, and 216. Each of the transmit antennapanels 210 may include one or more antenna elements (where the number ofantenna elements in a panel 210 is denoted by Q) be a single antennaelement (Q=1) or an array of antenna elements (Q>1). The transmittingantenna panels 210 are arranged on a plurality of transmit circles 220(individually identified as transmit circles 221, 222, 223). Thetransmitting antenna array 200 includes Ct circles (Ct is the number oftransmit circles), and each of the transmit circles 220 has acorresponding radius identified as ρ₀, ρ₁, . . . , ρ_(Ct-1). In someembodiments, each transmit circle has a different radius. In someembodiments, some of the transmit circles have the same radius as oneanother.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , the transmit circles 220 aredepicted as being coplanar and parallel to the xy-plane and concentricaround a transmit center point 230. Each transmit circle 220 may have acorresponding rotational offset β as measured from the outermosttransmit circle (e.g., the circle having the largest radius). Forexample, the first transmit circle 221 is rotationally offset from theoutermost transmit circle 223 by angle β₀. (According to this notation,there may be Ct rotational offsets: β₀, β₁, . . . , β_(Ct-1). Assumingthat the (Ct−1)-th transmit circle has the largest radius, thenβ_(Ct-1)=0°.) The rotational offset may be measured between the linesegments (or rays) between the transmit center point 230 and one of thetransmitting antenna elements 210 (e.g., a lowest numbered antennaelement) of each transmit circle. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 ,first transmitting antenna element 211 and second transmitting antennaelement 212 are on the first transmit circle 221 (having radius ρ₀),third transmitting antenna element 213 and fourth transmitting antennaelement 214 are on second transmit circle 222 (having radius ρ₁), andfifth transmitting antenna element 215 and sixth transmitting antennaelement 216 are located on third transmit circle 223 (having radiusρ_(Ct-1)). Accordingly, the angle β₀ is defined as the angle between afirst ray 241 between the receive center point 230 and the firsttransmitting antenna element 211 on the first transmit circle 221(having radius ρ₀) and a third ray 243 between the transmit center point230 and the fifth transmitting antenna element 215 on the third (e.g.,outermost) transmit circle 223 (having radius ρ_(Ct-1)). Likewise, theangle β₁ is defined as the angle between a second ray 242 between thereceive center point 230 and the third transmitting antenna element 213on the second transmit circle 222 (having radius ρ₁) and the third ray243 between the transmit center point 230 and the fifth transmittingantenna element 215 on the third (e.g., outermost) transmit circle 223(having radius ρ_(Ct-1)).

The receiving antenna array 100 and the transmitting antenna array 200may also have a rotational offset α with respect to one another. For thesake of discussion, the angle α will be described herein with respect toan angle between radii of the outermost circles of the receiving antennaarray 100 and the transmitting antenna array 200. In the depiction ofFIG. 1 , the radius of the outermost receive circle 122 (having radiusr_(Cr-1)) of the receiving antenna panel 100 is projected 150 to theplane of the outermost circle 223 (having radius r_(Ct-1)) of thetransmitting antenna array 200. Accordingly, the angle α corresponds tothe angle between the projected radius 150 and the third ray 243 of thethird (e.g., outermost) transmit circle 223 (having radius ρ_(Ct-1)).

As shown in FIG. 1 , in some embodiments the number of circles at thereceiving antenna panel array 100 and the transmitting antenna array 200(C_(t) and C_(r), respectively) is different. In some embodiments, thenumber of circles at the receiving antenna array 100 and thetransmitting antenna array 200 (C_(t) and C_(r), respectively) is thesame.

In embodiments of the present disclosure where an antenna panel includesmore than one antenna element (Q>1), the individual antenna elements maybe arranged in a variety of different shapes such as linear, circular,rectangular, or the like.

With these parameters, the model is flexible enough to become a linearor circular array. For example, when C_(t)=C_(r)=2, if the two radii ofthe circles are the same and β=90 degree, it becomes a circular array(in the case where there are two antenna elements per circle, then itcan be considered to be a square array), and it becomes a linear arrayif β=0 and the radii of the two circles are different.

Aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate to computing aset of antenna array parameters specifying the configuration of atransmitting antenna array 200 and a receiving antenna array 100 thatimproves or optimizes a performance metric such as by minimizing adecoding error probability, maximizing a channel capacity or throughput,and/or reducing or minimizing correlation between antenna panels, inaccordance with the antenna model described above with respect to FIG. 1, based on a plurality of input parameters. The input parameters mayinclude the number of transmit antennas panels (M), the number ofreceive antenna panels (N), the number of transmit circles (Ct), thenumber of receive circles (Cr), the distance (D) between thetransmitting antenna array 200 and receiving antenna array 100, thewavelength (λ) of the carrier frequency; and the number of antennaelements in each antenna panel (Q). The output parameters from a methodaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure include the radiusof each of the receive circles 120 (e.g., r_(i) for the i-th receivecircle for i∈[0, Cr−1] or, equivalently, for i∈[0, Cr)), the radius ofeach of the transmit circles 220 (e.g., ρ_(j) for the j-th transmitcircle for j∈[0, Ct−1] or, equivalently, for j∈[0, Ct)), the rotationaloffset (α) between the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays, andthe rotational offsets (β) for each of the receive circles 120 and eachof the transmit circles 220 (e.g., β_(i) for the i-th receive circle fori∈[0, Cr−1] and for the j-th transmit circle for i∈[0, Ct−1]).

FIG. 1 depicts the antenna panels as being located on receive circles120 and transmit circles 220. Embodiments of the present disclosureinclude embodiments in which the physical antenna array includes one ormore physical circular support structures on which the antenna panelsare mounted. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are notlimited thereto, and do not require that the antenna panels be mountedon physical circles. For example, embodiments of the present disclosurefurther include arrangements in which all of the antenna panels arespaced at one or more distances from a center point, where the one ormore distances correspond to the radii of one or more fictitious orimaginary concentric circles around the center point, without thepresence of corresponding circular physical support structures. See, forexample, the antenna panel array 400 described in more detail below withrespect to FIG. 4 .

Generally, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to improving oroptimizing a performance metric by minimizing a decoding errorprobability, or maximizing a channel capacity or throughput, and/orminimizing channel correlations between portions of an antenna array,such as by reducing or minimizing correlation between antenna panels.The correlation is a measure of the similarity of the channel conditionsthat are observed by each antenna panels. Best performance (e.g.,highest data throughput) is typically observed when the channelconditions observed by the antenna panels are independent (or verydifferent) each other. This corresponds to small correlation values.Therefore, some embodiments of the present disclosure relate tocomputing the radius and angle parameters for the transmit circles andthe receive circles to improve or optimize a performance metric of theline-of-sight (LOS) channels of the various antenna panels.

In the following discussion, a channel matrix H is defined, in whichi-th row and j-th column element represents the channel conditionbetween i-th Rx antenna panel and j-th Tx antenna panel. The correlationvalues between corresponding antenna pairs can then be calculated fromthe channel matrix H by calculating H^(H)H or H^(H)H (where X^(H) meansthe Hermitian matrix of X). The off-diagonal elements (i-th row and j-thcolumn element with i≠j) of the resulting matrix represent thecorrelation value between corresponding antenna pair (i.e., i-th andj-th antenna). Therefore, aspects of embodiments of the presentdisclosure relate to computing antenna parameters (e.g., r_(i), β_(i),ρ_(j), β_(j), and α, as discussed above) that make the magnitude of theoff-diagonal elements of H^(H)H or H^(H)H small.

In some cases, embodiments of the present disclosure relate tocalculating exact solutions for the case where Q=1, C_(t)=C_(r)=2 thatcorrespond to 4×4 arrangements (4 transmitting antenna elements M and 4receiving antenna elements N). In the case where C_(t)=C_(r)=2, theradius r₁ of the inner circle may be treated as a fraction of the radiusr₁ of the outer circle r₀=cr₁, where 0<c≤1.

In some cases, the receiving antenna array 100 and the transmittingantenna array 200 may have different size constraints. For example, asnoted above, a mobile station may have much less space available for anantenna than a base station. In addition, a mobile station may have aparticular form factor (e.g., a smartphone generally has the shape of athin cuboid, where two opposing sides of the cuboid corresponding to theface and the back of the smartphone are significantly larger than theremaining four sides of the cuboid corresponding to the edges of thesmartphone) that enables some configurations of antennas to be moresuitable than others. As another example, two communicating basestations may have different space constraints (e.g., located on the sideof a building versus freestanding). Accordingly, Equations 1, 2, and 3,described in more detail, below, relate to constraints on the radii(r_(i)) of receive circles of receiving antennas and the radii (ρ_(i))of transmit circles of transmitting antennas, where different solutionsto the constraints correspond to different arrangements of antennapanels that improve or optimize a performance metric such as byminimizing a decoding error probability, maximizing a channel capacityfor an antenna array, and/or minimizing correlations between thoseantenna panels.

Equation 1, below shows a constraint in which the product of the radius(r₁) of the inner receive circle and the radius (ρ₀) of the innertransmit circle is an odd multiple of λD/4 (the product of the carrierwavelength λ and the distance D between the transmitting antenna array200 and the receiving antenna array 100, with a scaling constant), wherethe odd multiple is indicated by k=1, 3, 5, . . . :

$\begin{matrix}{{{r_{0}\rho_{0}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{4}},{k = 1},3,5,{.\;.\;.}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

Equation 2, below, shows a constraint in which the product of the radius(r₀) of the inner receive circle and the radius (ρ₀) of the innertransmit circle added to the product of the radius (r₁) of the outerreceive circle and the radius (ρ₁) of the outer transmit circle, dividedby the product of the carrier wavelength λ and the distance D betweenthe transmitting antenna array 200 and the receiving antenna array 100is an odd multiple of ½, where the odd multiple is indicated by m=1, 3,5, . . . :

$\begin{matrix}{{{{r_{0}\rho_{0}} + {r_{1}\rho_{1}}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{m = 1},3,5,{.\;.\;.}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Similar to Equation 1, Equation 3, below shows a constraint in which theproduct of the radius (r₁) of the outer receive circle and the radius(ρ₁) of the outer transmit circle is an odd multiple of λD/4 (theproduct of wavelength and the distance between the transmitting antennaarray 200 and the receiving antenna array 100, with a scaling constant),where the odd multiple is indicated by l=1, 3, 5, . . . :

$\begin{matrix}{{{r_{1}\rho_{1}} = \frac{l\lambda D}{4}},{l = 1},3,5,{.\;.\;.}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

The solutions that meet the constraints of Equations 1, 2, and 3 includecircumstances where the transmitting antenna array 200 and the receivingantenna array 100 have different radiuses or radii. This is may be aparticularly useful circumstance when implementing a base station deviceand mobile device such as a smartphone, because a mobile device may havesignificant size constraints (e.g., a mobile device is generally ahandheld device and may be pocket-sized), therefore the antenna of amobile device needs to fit within the physical size constraints of itsform factor or enclosure. The above equations show that the sizes of thetransmitting antenna array 200 and the receiving antenna array 100 maybe different. Therefore, a small antenna array in a mobile device may becompensated for by using a large antenna array at the base station,which generally has fewer size constraints. In addition, having receive(or transmit) circles of different radii may be particularly helpful inthe case of a smartphone, where the size of the smartphone may constrainthe placement of the antenna panels of the larger diameter circle (e.g.,constrained by the longer dimension of the smartphone or the diagonal ofthe smartphone), while the antenna panels of circles of smaller diametermay be arranged along the smaller dimension of the smartphone.

As another special case with two circles (C_(t)=C_(r)=2), when otherdesign constraints require that the angle between the circles be 90degrees (β=90°), and where the transmit and receive circles are the samesize, some aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate tofinding parameters k, l, m and angle α that meet the below constraintsof Equations 4, 5, and 6 (or other similar constraints) to improve aperformance metric such as by minimizing a decoding error probability,maximizing a channel capacity, and/or reducing or minimizing antennachannel correlations.

As shown in Equations 4, 5, and 6 below, constraints on the radii of theinner and outer receive circles 120 (r₀=cr₁) and the radii of the innerand outer transmit circles 220 (where c is the ratio of the radius ofthe inner circle to the radius of the outer circle (c=r₀/r₁)) and theangle α between the transmit antenna array and the receive antenna arrayare controlled by the carrier wavelength λ, the distance D, and an oddmultiple of ½, where the odd multiples is indicated by ±1, ±3, +5, . . .. For example, in Equation 4, below, the odd multiple is indicated bythe variable k:

$\begin{matrix}{{{2c{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \cos}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {a\mspace{14mu}\sin\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} a} = {\pm 1}},{k = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

In Equation 5, below, the odd multiple is indicated by the variable l:

$\begin{matrix}{{{( {r_{0}^{2} + r_{1}^{2}} )\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} l} = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

In Equation 6, below, the odd multiple is indicated by the variable m:

$\begin{matrix}{{{2{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \sin}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {b\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} b} = {\pm 1}},{m = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

In some embodiments, a different constraint is used instead of Equation5. Another constrain that gives optimal solutions is shown in Equation5′

$\begin{matrix}{{{{( {r_{0}^{2} - r_{1}^{2}} )\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {br_{0}r_{1}\mspace{14mu}\sin\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2}},{l = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & ( 5^{\prime} )\end{matrix}$where using this constraint generates different solutions that are alsooptimal.

Examples of solutions that meet the conditions or constraints ofEquations 4, 5, and 6, above, and that therefore are examples of antennaparameters that have theoretically minimum correlations between antennapanels (and therefore theoretically maximize channel capacity) whenβ=90° are shown in Table 1, below:

TABLE 1 Examples of parameters that maximize channel capacity when Ct =Cr = 2 and when β = 90° k l m c α (deg) r₁ ² 1 1 −1 1.00 0.00 0.25 λD aUniform Circular Array (UCA) −1 1 1 1.00 63.43 0.56 λD a UCA withrelative rotation 1 −5 −3 0.58 0.00 0.74 λD Special case with α = 0, c²= ⅓ 1 3 −3 0.71 19.47 1.05 λD

As a third special case with two circles (C_(t)=C_(r)=2), when otherdesign constraints require that the angle α between the transmittingantenna array and the receiving antenna array be 0 degrees (α=0°), andwhere the transmit circles and the receive circles are assumed to be thesame size, some aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relateto finding parameters k, l, m and angle α that meet the belowconstraints of Equations 7, 8, 9, and 10 (or other similar constraints)to improve or optimize a performance metric such as by minimizing adecoding error probability, maximize a channel capacity, and/or reducingor minimizing antenna correlations.

$\begin{matrix}{{Equation}\mspace{11mu} 7} & \; \\{{r_{1}^{2} = \frac{k\lambda D}{4{c( {c + {a\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\beta}} )}}},\ {a = {\pm 1}},\ {k = {\pm 1}},\ {\pm 3},\ {\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (7) \\{{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 8} & \; \\{{r_{1}^{2} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2( {c^{2} - 1} )}},{l = {\pm 1}},\ {\pm 3},\ {\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (8) \\{{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 9} & \; \\{{r_{1}^{2} = \frac{m\lambda D}{4( {{c\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\beta} + b} )}},{b = {\pm 1}},{m = {\pm 1}},\ {\pm 3},\ {\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}} & (9) \\{{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 10} & \; \\{{\cos\mspace{14mu}\beta} = \frac{{( {k - {2l}} )c^{2}} - k}{2lca}} & (10)\end{matrix}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array, c is a ratio between the radii r₀ and r₁ of the two firstcircles of the first antenna array, and β is the rotational offsetbetween the two first circles of the first antenna array and between thetwo second circles of the second antenna array.

Examples of solutions that meet the conditions or constraints ofEquations 7, 8, 9, and 10, above, and that therefore are examples ofantenna parameters that have theoretically minimum correlations betweenantenna panels (and therefore theoretically maximize channel capacity)when α=0° are shown in Table 2, below:

TABLE 2 Examples of parameters that maximize channel capacity when Ct =Cr = 2 and when α = 0° k l m c β (deg) r₁ ² Note 1 −1 3 0.33 0.00 0.57λD Uniform Linear Array (ULA) 1 1 1 1.00 90.00 0.25 λD Uniform CircularArray (UCA) 3 −1 5 0.60 0.00 0.78 λD Non-uniform linear array 1 1 3 1.0060.00  0.5 λD Non-uniform circular array 1 −1 −3 0.58 90.00 0.74 λD

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D schematically depict example arrangements ofantenna arrays configured with parameters calculated in accordance withsome embodiments of the present disclosure. In more detail, FIG. 2Adepicts the first row of Table 2, where k=1, l=−1, m=3, c=0.33, β=0.00,and r₁ ²=0.57λD. In particular, as seen in FIG. 2A, antenna panels 311and 312 are on an inner circle that has a radius that is 0.33 of theradius of the outer circle that antenna panels 313 and 314 are on, andbecause β is 0 degrees, the four antenna panels 311, 312, 313, and 314are arranged in a line (e.g., form a uniform linear array, because theyare evenly spaced along a line).

FIG. 2B depicts the second row of Table 2, where k=1, l=1, m=1, c=1.00,β=90.00, and r₁ ²=0.25λD. In particular, as seen in FIG. 2B, becausec=1.00, the inner circle and the outer circle have the same radius, andall four antenna panels 321, 322, 323, and 324 are located at the samedistance from the center. The two circles are offset by 90° (β=90°) andtherefore the first and second antenna panels 321 and 322 are depictedas being along the x-axis and the second and third antenna panels 323and 324 are depicted as being rotated 90 degrees from the x-axis, thatis, along the y-axis. Accordingly, the four antenna panels 321, 322,323, and 324 form a uniform circular array because they are evenlyspaced on a circle (in this case, with four antenna panels, squarearray).

FIG. 2C depicts the third row of Table 2, where k=3, l=−1, m=5, c=0.60,β=0.00, and r₁ ²=0.78λD. In particular, as seen in FIG. 2B, antennapanels 331 and 332 are on an inner circle that has a radius that is 0.6of the radius of the outer circle that antenna panels 333 and 334 areon, and because β is 0 degrees, the four antenna panels 311, 312, 313,and 314 are arranged in a line (e.g., form a non-uniform linear array).

FIG. 2D depicts the fourth row of Table 2, where k=1, l=1, m=3, c=1.00,β=60.00, and r₁ ²=0.5λD. In particular, as seen in FIG. 2B, becausec=1.00, the inner circle and the outer circle have the same radius, andall four antenna panels 341, 342, 343, and 344 are located at the samedistance from the center. The two circles are offset by 60° (β=60°) andtherefore the first and second antenna panels 341 and 342 are depictedas being along the x-axis and the second and third antenna panels 343and 344 are depicted as being rotated 60 degrees from the x-axis.Accordingly, the four antenna panels 321, 322, 323, and 324 form anon-uniform circular array because they are unevenly spaced on a circle(in this case, with four antenna panels, rectangular array).

While FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D depict some example antenna arrays inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure, embodimentsof the present disclosure are not limited thereto, and various othersuitable arrangements of antenna panels of a transmitting antenna arrayand a receiving antenna array may be arranged in accordance with variousother embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, physicalconstraints such as the size of the mobile device or the size and shapeof the location allocated for a base station can limit the size of theoutermost transmit circle or receive circle. These constraints may bereflected in the column r₁ ² of Table 1 and Table 2, above and aresubject to the carrier wavelength λ of the wireless communication systemand the distance D between the transmitting antenna array 200 and thereceiving antenna array 100.

FIGS. 2E, 2F, and 2G schematically depict additional examples of antennaarrays configured with parameters calculated in accordance with variousembodiments of the present disclosure. In the embodiment shown in FIG.2E, there are two circles of different radius, where the inner circlehas three antenna panels spaced apart at 120° intervals from oneanother, and the outer circle has twelve antenna panels spaced apart at30° intervals from one another. FIG. 2F depicts an embodiment in whichantenna panels are arranged in four circles, where each circle includestwo antenna panels arranged on opposite sides of the circle from oneanother. Each circle is offset by 90° from the previous circle. Forexample, if the circles are numbered from 1 to 4 from innermost tooutermost, then β₃=90°, β₂=0°, β₁=90°. FIG. 2G depicts anotherembodiment with four circles, where each circle includes four antennapanels evenly spaced at 90° intervals from one another, and where thereare no relative rotations between the circles (e.g., β₃=β₂=β₁=⁰).

FIG. 3 is a plot depicting some possible solutions that improve oroptimize a performance metric such as by minimizing a decoding errorprobability, maximizing a channel capacity, and/or minimizing channelcorrelation for the Ct=Cr=2 case for a variety of values of r₁ ² (inunits of λD) versus angle between circles where the parameters arecalculated in accordance with a model in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure.

The particular parameters calculated in accordance with the aboveconstraints in Equations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 relate tosolutions that result in theoretically zero correlation between antennapanels. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limitedthereto, and practical considerations of the arrangement of thetransmitting antenna array, the receiving antenna array, the locationsof the antenna panels within the array, the arrangements of antennaelements within the antenna panel, and the like, can result in theactual antenna correlations to be non-zero. However, embodiments of thepresent disclosure relate to computing parameters for arranging antennapanels that exhibit correlations that are small enough or sufficientlyreduced to offer high performance in comparison to antenna arrays thatare not arranged in accordance with embodiments of the presentdisclosure. For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure,approximate arrangements are obtained by relaxing the constraints onEquations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 (e.g., allowing the radii ofthe receive circles r and the transmit circles ρ to be within a marginof the calculated ideal values).

Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to computingapproximate solutions for M×N antennas with multiple circles at both thereceiving antenna array 100 and the transmitting antenna array 200. Insome embodiments, the offsets β of the transmit circles are differentfrom the offsets β of the receive circles. According to some embodimentsof the present disclosure, the general process improves or optimizes aperformance metric such as by minimizing or reducing decoding errorprobability, by minimizing or reducing the antenna channel correlationsand/or maximizes the channel capacity (or any other similar metrics) fora given set of constraints (e.g., carrier frequency λ, distance D, andthe like). According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, theapproximate values of the radii of the circles in the first array arecalculated as a function of λ and D, such as by finding solutions toEquation 11:

$\begin{matrix}{r_{i}^{2} = \frac{\lambda D}{k_{i}c_{i}^{2}}} & (11)\end{matrix}$where i=0, . . . , C_(r)−1, k_(i) is a positive scaling parameter, andc_(i) is the ratio of the diameter of the ith circle to the outermostouter circle C_(r)−1, where c_(C) _(r) ⁻¹=1. In some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, both the k and c parameters are determined throughexperimental tests or simulations. In the second array, similarapproaches are also applied:

$\begin{matrix}{\rho_{j}^{2} = \frac{\lambda D}{l_{j}\sigma_{j}^{2}}} & (12)\end{matrix}$where j=0, . . . , C_(t)−1, l_(j) is a positive scaling parameter, andσ_(j) is the ratio of the diameter of the jth circle to the outermostouter circle C_(t)−1, where σ_(C) _(t) ⁻¹=1. In some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, both the l and σ parameters are determined throughexperimental tests or simulations

Some aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate to adynamically configurable antenna array (e.g., a transmitting antennaarray and/or a receiving antenna array) that is configured to adapt tocurrent electromagnetic conditions. Variable antenna shapes areespecially useful in line-of-sight situations where the transmitter andreceiver have a direct over-the-air communication path. This wouldinclude some scenarios such as indoor office communications, outdoorwireless communications between cell towers when inter-connectionbetween them is difficult due to geographic reasons or during disasters,etc.

For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, aconfigurable antenna array is used on an outdoor cellular base stationfor communicating with another outdoor cellular base station forwireless backhaul. A dynamically configurable antenna array allows thebase stations to configure the antenna array to suit the particularline-of-sight (LOS) communications path available (e.g., based on thedistance between the base stations and/or the size or space availablefor the antenna array). As another example, a configurable antenna arraymay also be used for communicating with one or more mobile stations. Thedistance D between the base station and the mobile station may changeover time, as the mobile station moves through the cell that is servicedby the base station. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, thebase station and/or the mobile station may dynamically reconfigure oneor both antenna arrays as the distance parameter D changes over time oras LOS paths change, are obstructed, or otherwise lost (e.g., due to thefailure of a base station).

FIG. 4 is a schematic depiction of a dynamically reconfigurable antennaarray according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In moredetail, some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to an antennaarray that is reconfigurable to operate based on given antenna arrayparameters, including the radius and angle parameters (e.g., r and β)calculated as discussed above. As noted above, these parameters may becomputed in accordance with physical constraints of a particular antennaarray (e.g., the maximum radius of the outer circle), the carrierfrequency 2, and the distance between the transmitting antenna array andreceiving antenna array.

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, a large groupof antenna panels is used to achieve reconfigurability. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 4 , an antenna array 400 (e.g., a transmittingantenna array 200 or a receiving antenna array 100) includes a pluralityof antenna panels 410 arranged in a grid. Each antenna panel 410 may beindependently electronically activated and deactivated, thereby allowingarbitrary combinations of the antenna panels 410 to be activated to forman active antenna array for LOS communications with another antennaarray. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, eachantenna panel 410 has a shape where a plurality of Q antenna elements(identified by X in FIG. 4 ) are arranged in a Q₁ by Q₂ rectangle(Q=Q₁×Q₂). However, embodiments of the present disclosure are notlimited thereto and may also include Q antenna elements arranged inother shapes (e.g., rectangles, ellipses, linear arrays, and the like).

In the particular embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , sixty-four (64) antennapanels 410 are arranged in an eight by eight (8×8) grid. However,embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto. Forexample, the antenna array 400 may include more than 64 panels or fewerthan 64 panels, may be formed in rectangular shapes with differentheight and width (e.g., a grid of panels that is taller than it is wide,to match the general shape of a smartphone), and or may have antennapanels 410 arranged in a two-dimensional grid of different shapes, suchas a hexagonal grid, a triangular grid, or a circular grid. In someembodiments, the antenna panels are arranged on a flat plane. In someembodiments, the antenna panels may be arranged around a cylinder orportion of a cylinder. In some embodiments, the antenna panels may bearranged around a sphere or hemisphere in the general pattern of atruncated icosahedron.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, the overallsize of the antenna array 400 can be very small when the communicationsystem uses very high carrier frequency λ, such as the frequencies usedor proposed in 3GPP 5G and 6G wireless communications standards. Basedon the parameters calculated in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure for the particular conditions, antenna panels thatare closest to the calculated shape (e.g., closest to the ideallocations of the antenna panels in accordance with calculated radius rand rotation parameters) are selected and turned on or activated foruse. For example, FIG. 4 depicts an antenna array 400 in a state inwhich four panels are activated to form an antenna array that can bemodeled as two circles with different radii.

In the arrangement shown in FIG. 4 , antenna panels 411, 412, 413, and414 are shaded to indicate that they are activated (or turned on), whilethe remaining antenna panels are unshaded to indicate that they aredeactivated (or turned off). As seen in FIG. 4 , first and secondantenna panels 411 and 412 are on first circle 421 (indicated by thedashed line circle) and third and fourth antenna panels 413 and 414 areon second circle 422 (indicated by the dashed line circle). In a similarway, various combinations of antenna panels 410 of the antenna array 400can be activated to reconfigure the antenna array to a set of antennapanels 410 that approximate or match the computed parameters of anantenna array with improved or optimized performance metrics such asminimized or reduced decoding error probability, maximized channelcapacity or throughput, and/or minimized or reduced channel correlationsin accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. While FIG. 4shows four antenna panels that are turned on to form one antenna array,embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto, and anynumber of antenna panels may be turned on to form an antenna array forLOS communications with another antenna array. In addition, embodimentsof the present disclosure also include embodiments where multipleantenna arrays for communicating with multiple different other antennaarrays are concurrently activated on a single grid. For example, antennapanels 411, 412, 413, and 414 form one active antenna array forcommunicating with a one remote antenna array, and different antennapanels 410 may be activated to form another active antenna array forconcurrently communicating with another remote antenna array (e.g., at adifferent distance and/or at a different carrier frequency).

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , the antenna panels 410 arecontrolled and in communication with an antenna array controller orprocessing circuit 430. The antenna array controller 430 may beconnected to the control the antenna panels 410 through interconnects432 and 434. The interconnects 432 and 434 may be arranged to controlthe antenna panels 410 via separate direct connections to eachindividual panel or by using a crossbar switch or other multiplexingtechnique.

The antenna array controller 430 may be in communication components of aradio system 440, which may include analog and digital radio componentssuch as mixers, filters, digital signal processors (e.g., basebandprocessors), and the like for performing radio communications in awireless communication device via the antenna array 400 (e.g., thereceiving antenna array 100 and/or the transmitting antenna array 200).

In some embodiments, the antenna array controller 430 controls theantenna panels 410 to activate (or turn on) by supplying modulated radiosignals from the radio system 440 to particular ones of the panels andby coupling the signals received from the activated antennas to theradio system 440, such as by electrically connecting the activatedantenna panels 410 to antenna connection ports of the radio system. Insome embodiments of the present disclosure, the antenna array controller430 is configured to compute the antenna array configuration parameters(e.g., as described in more detail with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6 ).However, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto.For example, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the antennaarray controller 430 controls antenna panels 410 of the antenna array400 in accordance with antenna array parameters received from anexternal source (e.g., from the radio system 440). For example, in someembodiments, a mobile station may compute antenna parameters for boththe mobile station and the base station and transmit the desired antennaarray parameters to the base station (e.g., the mobile station may havemore information about the orientation of its antenna array with respectto the base station). Likewise, in some embodiments, a base station maycompute antenna parameters for the mobile station and transmit thoseparameters to the mobile station for configuration of its antenna array.

While FIG. 4 depicts an embodiment wherein the antenna array includes aplurality of antenna panels 410 arranged in a grid, embodiments of thepresent disclosure are not limited thereto. In some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, a reconfigurable antenna array includes a pluralityof movable antenna panels 410, where one or more actuators (e.g.,electromechanical actuators such as electric motors, solenoids, andpiezoelectric actuators) are configured to position (e.g., physicallymoved) the antenna panels 410 to different locations in accordance withthe antenna array configuration parameters (e.g., based on the computedradii and offset angles α and β_(i).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 for dynamically configuring anantenna array according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. Themethod 500 may be implemented by a processing circuit configured tocontrol the antenna array 400 of a wireless communications device. Forexample, the processing circuit may be a component of a mobile stationor a component of a base station. The processing circuit may also beconfigured to perform other functions, such as operating as anapplication processor and/or as a baseband processor within the wirelesscommunications device.

Referring to FIG. 5 , in one embodiment, in operation 510, theprocessing circuit 430 receives wireless transmission conditions foroperating the antenna array. As noted above, due to various changes inthe wireless transmission conditions, one or more parameters definingthose conditions may change. These parameters may include the number oftransmitting antenna panels M, the number of receiving antenna panels N,the number of antenna elements Q in each antenna panel, the carrierwavelength λ, the distance D between the transmitting antenna array andthe receiving antenna array, the number of transmit circles Ct, and thenumber of receive circles Cr. For example, the distance D may changeover time when communicating with a mobile station, because the mobilestation may move through a cell over time. As another example, thecarrier wavelength λ may change due to a mobile station switching to adifferent frequency band, or due to reconfiguration of a wirelessbackhaul to accommodate other sources of interference (e.g., neighboringantenna arrays operating at nearby frequencies). The number oftransmitting antenna panels M or receiving antenna panels N may changedue to various changes in conditions (e.g., failures of panels,different multiplexing throughput requirements, and the like), and thenumber of receive circles may change due to various constraints (e.g.,maximum size of circles or limits to the number of circles that arepossible due to the design of the antenna array).

In operation 530, the processing circuit 430 computes new antennaconfiguration parameters, such as the radii of the receive circlesr_(i), the radii of the transmit circles ρ_(i), the rotational offset αbetween the transmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna array,and the rotational angles β_(i) between the transmit circles and/or thereceive circles within an antenna array. According to some embodimentsof the present disclosure, the processing circuit applies one or moretechniques, as described above with respect to Equations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, to compute possible solutions that meet the givenwireless transmission conditions (M, N, Q λ, D, Ct, Cr) and that alsomeet the physical constraints of the wireless communication device(e.g., constraints due to the physical size or arrangement of antennapanels 410 of the antenna array 400).

In some embodiments, more than one possible set of parameters wouldsatisfy the input wireless transmission conditions. In such embodimentsof the present disclosure, the processing circuit selects a particularone of the possible solutions to be used for configuring the antennaarray. In some embodiments, the set of possible solutions is constrainedby the physical characteristics (e.g., dimensions and orientation) ofthe physical antenna array 400. In some embodiments, the solutions areevaluated in terms of how closely the solution can be implemented on theactual antenna array 400 (e.g., how closely a selected set of antennapanels 410 of the antenna array 400 match the calculated ideal), andtherefore whether the given solutions will have acceptably-low channelcorrelation. In some embodiments, one solution is selected randomly fromamong the remaining possible solutions, after removing solutions thatcannot be implemented on the actual antenna array 400.

In operation 550, the processing circuit 430 reconfigures the antennaarray 400 based on the computed parameters (e.g., the radii of thereceive circles r_(i), the radii of the transmit circles ρ_(i) therotational offset α between the transmitting antenna array and thereceiving antenna array, and the rotational angles β_(i) between thetransmit circles and/or the receive circles). As noted above, in someembodiments of the present disclosure, reconfiguring the antenna array400 includes activating particular antenna panels 410 that are closestto the computed parameters (e.g., spaced apart in accordance with thecomputed radii and rotated in accordance with the rotational angles β).

According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the activationof particular antenna panels 410 of an antenna array 400 for LOScommunication with another wireless communication device does notnecessarily preclude the concurrent use of other antenna panels 410 ofthe antenna array 400. For example, one set of antenna panels 410 of anantenna array 400 of a base station may be activated for communicatingwith a first mobile station while a second set of antenna panels of thesame antenna array may be activated for communicating with a secondmobile station. The first mobile station and the second mobile stationmay communicate with the base station under different wirelessconditions, such as at different carrier frequencies A, at differentdistances D from the base station, or may have different antenna sizelimits (e.g., a smartphone may have a smaller possible antenna arraythan a vehicle-mounted wireless communication device). In someembodiments, beamforming or multiplexing may further be applied to limitinterference between concurrent use of antenna panels to communicatewith different radio transceivers.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method for computing antenna array parametersaccording to one embodiment of the present disclosure. According to someembodiments of the present disclosure, the method 600 shown in FIG. 6 isused when computing new antenna array configuration parameters inoperation 530 of FIG. 5 .

Referring to FIG. 6 , in operation 610, the processing circuitdetermines whether the current wireless transmission conditions meetsthe particular case of a 4×4 transmission (4 transmitting antennaelements M and 4 receiving antenna elements N, in other words, M=N=4)and where the transmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna arrayboth include two circles (Ct=Cr=2). If so, then the processing circuitproceeds to determine if the current wireless transmission conditionsmeet one of the special cases discussed above with respect to Equations1-3, Equations 4-6, or Equations 7-10.

In more detail, in operation 620, the processing circuit determineswhether the current constraints allow the radii of the transmit circlesto be different from the radii of the receive circles. If so, then inoperation 630 the processing circuit computes a collection of antennaparameters that includes the radii r_(i) of the receive circles, theradii ρ_(i) of the transmit circles, the angle α between thetransmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna array, and therotational offsets β_(i) between the circles of the receiving antennaarray and the transmitting antenna array in accordance with Equations1-3, as discussed above.

In response to determining, in operation 620, that the currentconstraints do not allow the radii of the transmit circles to bedifferent from the radii of the receive circles (e.g., require that thetransmit circles and the receive circles have the same radii), then inoperation 640 the processing circuit determines whether the two transmitcircles must be offset by 90° from one another and whether the tworeceive circles must also be offset by 90° from one another. If so, thenin operation 650 the processing circuit computes a collection of antennaparameters that includes the radii r_(i) of the receive circles and thetransmit circles (both the same radii), and the angle α between thetransmitting antenna array and the receiving antenna array. Therotational offsets β_(i) between the circles of the receiving antennaarray and the transmitting antenna array are set at 90°. Theseparameters may therefore be computed in accordance with Equations 4-6,as discussed above.

In response to determining, in operation 640, that the currentconstraints do not require that the transmit circles and the receivecircles have offsets of 90°, the processing circuit determines, inoperation 660, whether the angle α between the transmitting antennaarray and the receiving antenna array is 0°. If so, then in operation670 the processing circuit computes the antenna parameters in accordancewith Equations 7-10, as discussed above. The collection antennaparameters computed include the radii r_(i) of the receive circles andthe transmit circles (both the same radii) and rotational offsets β_(i)between the circles of the receiving antenna array and the transmittingantenna array. The angle α between the transmitting antenna array andthe receiving antenna array is set at 0°.

If, in operation 610, the processing circuit determined that the currentwireless transmission conditions do not meet the particular case ofM=N=4 and Ct=Cr=2, or, in operation 660, the processing circuitdetermined that the angle α between the transmitting antenna array andthe receiving antenna array is not zero degrees (0°), then theprocessing circuit computes the antenna array parameters in accordancewith Equation 11, above.

The result of computing antenna array parameters in operations 630, 650,670, or 680 is a collection of antenna parameters that includes theradii r_(i) of the receive circles, the radii ρ_(i) of the transmitcircles, the angle α between the transmitting antenna array and thereceiving antenna array, and the rotational offsets β_(i) between thecircles of the receiving antenna array and the transmitting antennaarray. These computed antenna array parameters may then be used toreconfigure either or both of the receiving antenna array and thetransmitting antenna array as discussed above with respect to operation550 of FIG. 5 .

Accordingly, aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure relate tosystems and methods for computing a plurality of antenna configurationparameters for improving or optimizing a performance metric such as byreducing or minimizing decoding error probabilities (or decoding errorrates), maximizing throughput or channel capacity, and/or reducing orminimizing channel correlations in line-of-sight communication betweenradio transceivers based on input wireless transmission conditions suchas number of antenna panels, distance between the communicating wirelesstransceivers, and carrier wavelength. Antenna parameters computed inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure result in bothregular (e.g., evenly spaced) and irregular (e.g., unevenly spaced)antenna arrays. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, antennaarray controllers reconfigure antenna panels of antenna arrays based onthe computed antenna configuration parameters.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method for reconfiguring an antenna arraybased on wireless configuration parameters, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart ofa method for computing antenna configuration parameters. It should beunderstood that the sequence of steps of the process is not fixed, butcan be altered into any desired sequence as recognized by a person ofskill in the art.

In some embodiments, the systems and methods for computing antennaconfiguration parameters discussed above are implemented in one or moreprocessing circuits. The term “processing circuit” is used herein tomean any combination of hardware, firmware, and software, employed toprocess data or digital signals. Processing circuit hardware mayinclude, for example, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs),general purpose or special purpose central processing units (CPUs),baseband processors (BPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), and programmable logic devices such as fieldprogrammable gate arrays (FPGAs). In a processing circuit, as usedherein, each function is performed either by hardware configured, i.e.,hard-wired, to perform that function, or by more general purposehardware, such as a CPU, configured to execute instructions stored in anon-transitory storage medium. A processing circuit may be fabricated ona single printed circuit board (PCB) or distributed over severalinterconnected PCBs. A processing circuit may contain other processingcircuits; for example, a processing circuit may include two processingcircuits, an FPGA and a CPU, interconnected on a PCB.

It will be understood that, although the terms “first”, “second”,“third”, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements,components, regions, and/or sections, these elements, components,regions, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. Theseterms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, orsection from another element, component, region, or section. Thus, afirst element, component, region, or section discussed herein could betermed a second element, component, region, or section, withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the inventive concept.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the inventiveconcept. As used herein, the terms “substantially,” “about,” and similarterms are used as terms of approximation and not as terms of degree, andare intended to account for the inherent deviations in measured orcalculated values that would be recognized by those of ordinary skill inthe art.

As used herein, the singular forms “a” and “an” are intended to includethe plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising”, when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein, the term “and/or”includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associatedlisted items. Expressions such as “at least one of,” when preceding alist of elements, modify the entire list of elements and do not modifythe individual elements of the list. Further, the use of “may” whendescribing embodiments of the inventive concept refers to “one or moreembodiments of the present disclosure”. Also, the term “exemplary” isintended to refer to an example or illustration. As used herein, theterms “use,” “using,” and “used” may be considered synonymous with theterms “utilize,” “utilizing,” and “utilized,” respectively.

Although exemplary embodiments of a system and method for systems andmethods for computing antenna configuration parameters and reconfiguringantenna arrays based on the computed parameters have been specificallydescribed and illustrated herein, many modifications and variations willbe apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is to beunderstood that a system and method for computing antenna configurationparameters and reconfiguring antenna arrays based on the computedparameters constructed according to principles of this disclosure may beembodied other than as specifically described herein. The disclosure isalso defined in the following claims, and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. A first antenna array comprising antenna panels,the antenna panels comprising: a plurality of first antenna panels ofthe first antenna array arranged and spaced apart on a first circlehaving a first radius, each of the first antenna panels comprising oneor more antenna elements; and a plurality of second antenna panels ofthe first antenna array arranged and spaced apart on a second circlehaving a second radius, each of the second antenna panels comprising oneor more antenna elements, the second circle being coplanar with thefirst circle and the second circle being concentric with the firstcircle at a center point, the first radius and the second radius beingcomputed in accordance with wireless transmission conditions comprising:a line-of-sight distance to a second antenna array; and a carrierfrequency of a line-of-sight wireless transmission between the firstantenna array and the second antenna array.
 2. The first antenna arrayof claim 1, wherein the wireless transmission conditions furthercomprise: the plurality of the antenna panels in the first antennaarray; the plurality of circles on which the antenna panels of the firstantenna array are arranged; and the plurality of antenna elements ineach of the antenna panels.
 3. The first antenna array of claim 2,wherein the wireless transmission conditions further comprise: aplurality of third antenna panels in the second antenna array; and twoor more circles on which the third antenna panels of the second antennaarray are arranged.
 4. The first antenna array of claim 1, wherein thefirst antenna array further comprises an antenna array controllerconfigured to: compute an angle between the first antenna array and thesecond antenna array, the first radius, and the second radius inaccordance with changes in the wireless transmission conditions; andreconfigure the first antenna array based on the first radius, thesecond radius, and the angle.
 5. The first antenna array of claim 4,wherein the antenna array controller is configured to activate the firstantenna panels and the second antenna panels selected from a grid ofantenna panels in accordance with the first radius, the second radius,and the angle.
 6. The first antenna array of claim 4, wherein theantenna array controller is configured to control one or more actuatorsto position the first antenna panels and the second antenna panels inaccordance with the first radius, the second radius, and the angle. 7.The first antenna array of claim 1, wherein the first antenna panels andthe second antenna panels are spaced non-uniformly around the firstcircle and the second circle.
 8. The first antenna array of claim 1,wherein the first radius is the same as the second radius.
 9. The firstantenna array of claim 1, wherein the first radius is different from thesecond radius.
 10. The first antenna array of claim 1, wherein the firstradius and the second radius are computed in accordance with optimizinga performance metric.
 11. The first antenna array of claim 10, whereinthe performance metric is computed based on one or more of: minimizing adecoding error probability; maximizing a channel capacity; andminimizing channel correlations.
 12. A method for configuring a firstantenna array and a second antenna array, the method comprising:receiving wireless transmission conditions comprising: a line-of-sightdistance D between: the first antenna array comprising a plurality offirst antenna panels arranged and spaced apart on a plurality of firstcircles, the plurality of first circles being coplanar and concentricaround a first center point; and the second antenna array comprising aplurality of second antenna panels arranged and spaced apart on aplurality of second circles, the plurality of second circles beingcoplanar and concentric around a second center point; and a carrierfrequency λ of a line-of-sight wireless transmission between the firstantenna array and the second antenna array; and computing antenna arrayparameters for the first antenna array and the second antenna arraybased on the wireless transmission conditions, the antenna arrayparameters comprising: a plurality of first radii r of the first circlesof the first antenna array; and a plurality of second radii p of thesecond circles of the second antenna array.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the wireless transmission conditions further comprise: a numberof first antenna panels M in the first antenna array; a number ofcircles Cr in the first antenna array; a number of second antenna panelsN in the second antenna array; a number of circles Ct in the secondantenna array; and a number of antenna elements Q in each of the firstantenna panels and each of the second antenna panels.
 14. The method ofclaim 13, wherein the computing the antenna array parameters comprisesdetermining that: the number of first antenna panels M in the firstantenna array and the number of second antenna panels N in the secondantenna array are both equal to four; and the first antenna panels arearranged in two first circles in the first antenna array and the secondantenna panels are arranged in two second circles in the second antennaarray.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the computing the antennaarray parameters comprises: determining that the wireless transmissionconditions indicate that the first radii r of the first circles of thefirst antenna array are different from the second radii p of the secondcircles of the second antenna array; and computing the antenna arrayparameters in accordance with constraints:${{r_{0}\rho_{0}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{4}},{k = 1},3,5,{{{{.\;.\;.r_{0}}\rho_{0}} + {r_{1}\rho_{1}}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{m = 1},3,5,{{{.\;.\;.r_{1}}\rho_{1}} = \frac{l\lambda D}{4}},{l = 1},3,5,{.\;.\;.}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array and ρ₀ and ρ₁ are the radii of the two second circles ofthe second antenna array.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein thecomputing the antenna array parameters comprises: determining that thewireless transmission conditions indicate that: the first radii r of thefirst circles of the first antenna array are the same as the secondradii ρ of the second circles of the second antenna array; and thatrotational offsets β_(i) between the two first circles of the firstantenna array and between the two second circles of the second antennaarray are both 90°; and computing the antenna array parameters inaccordance with constraints:${{2c{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \cos}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {a\mspace{14mu}\sin\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{k\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} a} = {\pm 1}},{k = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{{.\;.\;.( {r_{0}^{2} + r_{1}^{2}} )}\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha} = \frac{l\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} l} = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{{{.\;.\;.2}{r_{1}^{2}( {{{c \cdot \sin}\mspace{14mu}\alpha} + {b\mspace{14mu}\cos\mspace{14mu}\alpha}} )}} = \frac{m\lambda D}{2}},{{{where}\mspace{14mu} b} = {\pm 1}},{m = {\pm 1}},{\pm 3},{\pm 5},{.\;.\;.}$where r₀ and r₁ are the radii of the two first circles of the firstantenna array and c is a ratio between the radii r₀ and r₁ of the twofirst circles of the first antenna array.
 17. The method of claim 12,further comprising: computing the antenna array parameters in accordancewith changes in the wireless transmission conditions; and reconfiguringthe first antenna array and the second antenna array in accordance withthe antenna array parameters.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein thereconfiguring the first antenna array and the second antenna arraycomprises: activating the first antenna panels from a first grid ofantenna panels of the first antenna array and the second antenna panelsfrom a second grid of antenna panels of the second antenna array inaccordance with the antenna array parameters.
 19. The method of claim18, wherein the first grid of antenna panels are arranged on: a flatplane; a portion of a cylinder; or a portion of a sphere.
 20. The methodof claim 17, wherein the reconfiguring the first antenna array and thesecond antenna array comprises: moving the first antenna panels and thesecond antenna panels using one or more actuators to arrange the firstantenna panels and the second antenna panels in accordance with theantenna array parameters.